Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the robust lives of American Jews. Here there’s a little of everything about the multifaceted world of Jewish life. There are light-hearted Jewish celebrity stories and shocking Jewish celebrity news. Food is also plentiful,…
Life
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Carole King: Natural Woman
The most surprising and pleasurable thing about watching Carole King perform with her dear friend James Taylor on their reunion tour Thursday night was how fresh it all seemed. Her music was not simply the soundtrack to my life in high school and college, when “Tapestry” burst onto the music scene and suddenly this Jewish…
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Q&A With Miryam Kabakov: Editor of Anthology on Orthodox Lesbians
A new anthology, titled “Keep Your Wives Away from Them: Orthodox Women, Unorthodox Desires,” includes essays by 14 women who identify themselves as part of the GLBQT community. Some remain part of the frum community, and write anonymously. One is from a prominent politically conservative family and talks about her family’s gradual acceptance process of…
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Deluded by Diamonds
I agree with Conor Friedersdorf, who in The Atlantic wrote that women should rebel against engagement rings. Friedersdorf argues: Why should women want to end diamond engagement rings? Well first of all, it’s your money too, presuming the wedding eventually occurs, and more than that, you’re the ones who are silently judged by status conscious…
The Latest
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Israel Should Grant Asylum to Sex Slaves
M., a 28-year old Eritrean woman who grew up in Ethiopia, decided to emigrate with her husband in May 2009 in the hopes of a better life. Trying the Sudan and then Egypt, they eventually hoped to make their way towards Israel. A group of Bedouins took their money in exchange for a promise to…
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Why We’re Hooked on Helen Thomas
Flare-ups and screw-ups in the Middle East reveal peoples’ biases much closer to home — and I’m addicted to discovering them. The last few times there’s been a flare-up of violence and controversy between Israel and its antagonists, I’ve taken to quietly but obsessively scrolling through the comments sections of blogs discussing the topic. I…
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Helen Thomas and the Feminist Dilemma
I’m very disappointed in Feministing. One of the leading feminist blogs out there, usually a courageous voice in calling for justice and fairness, has come out on the wrong side of the Helen Thomas story. I would have expected some wisdom and understanding, a bit of passion in the fight against hatred, bigotry, and oppression….
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A Jewish Wedding for a Couple of Non-Believers
In college, I abandoned a sort of mystical, wishy-washy Reform Jewish with a touch of nature-worshiping belief system to embrace happy, unabashed non-believer status. Nonetheless, I retained a deep love for Jewish tradition and spirituality and a fierce commitment to Jewish self-identification and ritual. So when my avowedly atheist but equally culturally-proud Jewish fiancé and…
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Ordering a Baby Online: Israel’s ‘Google Baby’ Comes to HBO
An independent Israeli documentary that takes a close look at an Israeli firm outsourcing on a global scale every aspect of baby-making has been picked up by HBO and will air in prime time on June 16, according to this article in Haaretz. From Israeli television director and producer Zippi Brand Frank, “Google Baby” takes…
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Digest: Lesbian Mothers, Well-Adjusted Kids; A 5-Days-After Pill?
The Sisterhood Digest: • For all of you with two Jewish mothers — or two mothers, period — consider yourself lucky: A new study [shows][1] that children raised by lesbian mothers have fewer behavioral problems than their peers. • An Egyptian court has ruled that men who marry Jewish Israeli women — and children born of those unions…
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A Decade in the Making, Egg Donation Bill Passes Knesset
The Knesset passed a revolutionary egg donor law this week, easing the path for women to use egg donations from Israeli women. As Sisterhood editor Gabi Birkner wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal article, egg donation in Israel has been a topic of major controversy in Israel, due in large part to rabbinic statements…
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A Leaked Exam, and the Troubling Truth About Women and Math
Although for most of the world, the Israel story of the week was about flotillas, for Israeli teens, the big story of the week was math. It’s bagrut season, matriculation time, when high school students endeavor to pass exams that will likely make or break what university programs they get into, and have a direct…
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